Annie & Max Darling have just moved into their new home. They have a lot of interesting neighbors, especially Sydney Cahill who goes after every man she meets, including Max. Annie is not too interested in going to Sydney's Valentine party, but Max's mother comes to visit & decides that it would be great fun for the 3 of them to attend the party. When Sydney turns up murdered, there are no lack of suspects since she was involved w/ most of the neighborhood men & there are many jealous wives. Annie & Max check into their neighbor's backgrounds & discover even more motives. They are totally confused until Max's mother Laurel calls Annie's hand by inviting all of the neighbors to a meeting so that Annie can unveil the murderer's identity. Annie has no idea who committed the murder until she hears some of Laurel's conclusions during the meeting. Finally, Annie confronts the murderer & puts Laurel's life in danger as a consequence. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Read this quite a while ago - a good cozy mystery!
Annie Lawrence Darling is one of my favorite crime solvers.Annie receives a telephone call from her mother-in-law Laurel, who was on her way to San Francisco to visit her daughter, informing Annie that she was coming for a visit because fate told her Annie and Max needs her. Laurel tells Annie that she found the spare key and her room so don’t worry about her.On the same evening the trio attend a party at the neighbor’s where the hostess ends up dead and Laurel ends up the lead suspect. As the investigation continues everyone becomes a suspect. If you enjoy reading mysteries and you’re not a Carolyn Hart fan, then it’s time for you to become one. The characters and crimes are believable and the writing is great. Carolyn Hart tells her stories without the distractions of profanity and pornography.
What do You think about Deadly Valentine (1991)?
I chose Deadly Valentine for it's holiday theme, but just couldn't seem to fall in love with it. I have read many of Carolyn Hart's books and this was my least favorite. The Good: I liked the plot well enough to keep reading. The cast of characters were varied and interesting while the mother-in-law was just quirky enough to keep things lively. The ending was a welcome surprise.The Bad: Although Annie owns a mystery book store, I found the constant references to mystery titles, authors, and characters from said books to be overly used to the point I began skimming past much of it. The references were meaningless and tiring unless you had read the particular book or understood the reference and seemed to add no value to the story.
—Shirley Worley
